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2020–21 UEFA Nations League A
International football competition From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2020–21 UEFA Nations League A was the top division of the 2020–21 edition of the UEFA Nations League, the second season of the international football competition involving the men's national teams of the 55 member associations of UEFA.[1] League A culminated with the Nations League Finals in October 2021 to determine the champions of the competition.
Portugal were the defending champions, having won the inaugural 2019 finals. However, they failed to qualify for the 2021 finals after finishing second in their group behind France.[2] None of the teams that had qualified for the previous UEFA Nations League Finals qualified for the 2021 edition.
France won the final 2–1 against Spain for their first UEFA Nations League title.
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Format
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Following a format change from the first season, League A was expanded from 12 to 16 teams.[3] The league consisted of the top ranked UEFA members from 1–16 in the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League overall ranking, split into four groups of four. Each team played six matches within their group, using the home-and-away round-robin format on double matchdays in September, October and November 2020.[4] The winners of each group advanced to the 2021 UEFA Nations League Finals, and the fourth-placed team of each group was relegated to the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League B.[5]
The Nations League Finals was played in a knockout format, consisting of the semi-finals, third place play-off, and final. The semi-final pairings were determined by means of an open draw. Host country Italy was selected among the four qualified teams by the UEFA Executive Committee, with the winners of the final crowned as the champions of the UEFA Nations League. Though originally planned for 2–6 June 2021, the Nations League Finals were moved to October 2021 following the rescheduling of UEFA Euro 2020 to June and July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6][7][8]
The four group winners were drawn into groups of five teams for 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification (in order to accommodate for the Nations League Finals).
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Teams
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Team changes
The following were the team changes of League A from the 2018–19 season:
The following team changes were initially set to occur in League A, but did not after no teams were relegated due to the format change by UEFA:
Seeding
In the 2020–21 access list, UEFA ranked teams based on the 2018–19 Nations League overall ranking, with a slight modification: teams that were originally relegated in the previous season were ranked immediately below teams promoted prior to the format change.[9][10] The seeding pots for the league phase were confirmed 4 December 2019,[11] and were based on the access list ranking.[5][12]
The draw for the league phase took place at the Beurs van Berlage Conference Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 3 March 2020, 18:00 CET.[13][14][15][16] Each group contained one team from each pot.
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Groups
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The original fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 3 March 2020 following the draw.[17] On 17 June 2020, the UEFA Executive Committee adjusted the league phase schedule for October and November 2020 to allow for the completion of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs.[18][19] Following the change, a revised schedule for the October and November 2020 fixtures was released by UEFA on 26 June 2020.[20][21]
Times are CET/CEST,[note 1] as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
- The Switzerland v Ukraine match was awarded as a 3–0 win to Switzerland after being cancelled as Ukraine were placed in quarantine prior to the match due to positive SARS-CoV-2 tests in the team.
Referee: Anastasios Sidiropoulos (Greece)
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Nations League Finals
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The host of the Nations League Finals, Italy, was selected from the four qualified teams.[74] The semi-final pairings were determined by means of an open draw on 3 December 2020, 17:30 CET, at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. For scheduling purposes, the host team was allocated to semi-final 1 as the administrative home team.[75]
Times are CEST (UTC+2), as listed by UEFA.
Bracket
Semi-finals | Final | |||||
6 October – Milan | ||||||
![]() | 1 | |||||
10 October – Milan | ||||||
![]() | 2 | |||||
![]() | 1 | |||||
7 October – Turin | ||||||
![]() | 2 | |||||
![]() | 2 | |||||
![]() | 3 | |||||
Third place play-off | ||||||
10 October – Turin | ||||||
![]() | 2 | |||||
![]() | 1 |
Semi-finals
Third-place play-off
Final
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Goalscorers
There were 143 goals scored in 51 matches, for an average of 2.8 goals per match.
6 goals
4 goals
3 goals
2 goals
1 goal
Yannick Carrasco
Kevin De Bruyne
Charles De Ketelaere
Jason Denayer
Jérémy Doku
Axel Witsel
Edin Džeko
Haris Hajradinović
Smail Prevljak
Josip Brekalo
Andrej Kramarić
Dejan Lovren
Bruno Petković
Robert Skov
Jonas Wind
Marcus Rashford
Declan Rice
Raheem Sterling
Kingsley Coman
Theo Hernandez
N'Golo Kanté
Benjamin Pavard
Dayot Upamecano
Matthias Ginter
Serge Gnabry
Leon Goretzka
İlkay Gündoğan
Kai Havertz
Leroy Sané
Hólmbert Friðjónsson
Viðar Örn Kjartansson
Birkir Már Sævarsson
Andrea Belotti
Jorginho
Stefano Sensi
Donny van de Beek
Steven Bergwijn
Kamil Glik
Kamil Grosicki
Kamil Jóźwiak
Karol Linetty
João Cancelo
André Silva
Bernardo Silva
Ansu Fati
José Gayà
Gerard
Álvaro Morata
Rodri
Marcus Berg
Viktor Claesson
Marcus Danielson
Dejan Kulusevski
Robin Quaison
Haris Seferović
Silvan Widmer
Ruslan Malinovskyi
Viktor Tsyhankov
Roman Yaremchuk
Andriy Yarmolenko
Oleksandr Zinchenko
1 own goal
Nacer Chadli (against Denmark)
Dominik Livaković (against France)
Rúnar Már Sigurjónsson (against Denmark)
Marcus Danielson (against Croatia)
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Overall ranking
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The 16 League A teams were ranked 1st to 16th overall in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League according to the following rules:[5][80]
- The teams finishing first in the groups were ranked 1st to 4th according to the results of the Nations League Finals.
- The teams finishing second in the groups were ranked 5th to 8th according to the results of the league phase.
- The teams finishing third in the groups were ranked 9th to 12th according to the results of the league phase.
- The teams finishing fourth in the groups were ranked 13th to 16th according to the results of the league phase.
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Notes
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, all matches scheduled for September 2020 were played behind closed doors.[23][24]
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, the match was played behind closed doors.
- The Switzerland v Ukraine match was cancelled and awarded as a 3–0 win to Switzerland after the Ukraine national team were placed in quarantine by the Department of Health of the Canton of Lucerne due to positive SARS-CoV-2 tests in the squad.[71] The Ukrainian Association of Football appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,[72] which was subsequently dismissed.[73]
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References
External links
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